Skip to the content of the web site.

Symmetric 2 × 2 singular matrices

The following are essentially all 2 × 2 matrices that have both integer entries and integer eigenvalues that are also symmetric and singular (not invertible). No diagonal matrices are listed, as the eigenvalues of these are obvious. All other cases are listed up to multiplication by -1, so the complementary matrix may be found by multiplying a listed matrix by -1, in which case, the corresponding complementary eigenvalues are the corresponding eigenvalues negated. They are grouped based on the maximum integer in absolute value in the matrix. The eigenvalues are sorted, so if you want a singular matrix that has three zero eigenvalues, you can search for "0, 0, 0".

Also availble are 2 × 2 matrices that are symmetric or invertible or both. While the matrices are in the Matlab format, some of these have been tested in Maple to ensure that they are not the result of numeric error.

Please note, these do not include diagonal matrices.

Singular 2 × 2 symmetric matrices with no entries greater than one in absolute value

EigenvaluesMatrix
0, 2[1 -1; -1  1]
0, 2[1  1;  1  1]

Singular 2 × 2 symmetric matrices with no entries greater than two in absolute value

There are no symmetric matrices that are not diagonal matrices and are not integer multiples of matrices already listed above.

Singular 2 × 2 symmetric matrices with no entries greater than three in absolute value

There are no symmetric matrices that are not diagonal matrices and are not integer multiples of matrices already listed above.

Singular 2 × 2 symmetric matrices with no entries greater than four in absolute value

This does not include integer multiples of matrices already shown above.

EigenvaluesMatrix
0, 5[1 -2; -2  4]
0, 5[1  2;  2  4]
0, 5[4 -2; -2  1]
0, 5[4  2;  2  1]

Singular 2 × 2 symmetric matrices with no entries greater than five in absolute value

There are no symmetric matrices that are not diagonal matrices and are not integer multiples of matrices already listed above.